Seattle Bike Blog

Cities across the country, including Seattle, Bellevue, Bothell, Edmonds and others around the region, have been experimenting with repurposing street space to provide more room for socially-distanced movement and outdoor commercial activity. They have provided expanded space for walking and … Continue reading →

Following the exciting passage of JumpStart Seattle revenue package, which levies a tax on high-end salaries at large companies to fund an array of COVID-19 recovery and affordability programs, the details of the city’s plan for Proposition 1 to renew … Continue reading →

With the fate of the West Seattle Bridge still unknown, SDOT is fast-tracking projects to improve other connections to and around the bridge. That includes the long-planned E Marginal Way remake, which has been a priority for both the Port … Continue reading →

Safe streets archaeologists in West Seattle made an astounding discovery this month, unearthing a long-forgotten sidewalk and path connecting the Duwamish Trail to some greenbelt trails off Highland Park Way SW. While waiting for city plans to help ease the … Continue reading →

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has created a “Re-Imagining Traffic Enforcement Task Force” to research best practices and organize with community to develop ways to enforce traffic safety without or with fewer police and to rethink which traffic laws are keeping people … Continue reading →

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been working to find ways to use their bikes to help meet community needs. Mike Lang and Maxwell Burton have been organizing people with bikes to help transport food from food … Continue reading →

Lake Washington Blvd has been the most-requested street for the city’s car-free and car-light street projects, which started as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the need to create more space for people to safely distance while getting some … Continue reading →

The third Peace Peloton ride meets 10 a.m. Saturday at Central Cafe and Juice Bar in the Central District. At noon, the ride will travel ten miles before ending at Fat’s Chicken and Waffles. If you plan to attend, fill … Continue reading →

Mayor Jenny Durkan and SDOT have paused $58.3 million worth of projects as the department attempts to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the municipal budget. The cuts represent about 8% of the department’s adopted budget with … Continue reading →

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes Segura was already researching the role of policing in traffic enforcement before I started working on this story. So I worked with him over the past week to put this piece together. As the city opens the … Continue reading →

Lime has relaunched e-assist bike share in Seattle, about six weeks after pulling their newly-acquired red JUMP bikes from the streets following a major investment deal with Uber. There are far fewer bikes hitting the streets than were available before. … Continue reading →

As massive protests against racist and brutal policing pass the half-month mark, the City Council has passed some significant limits on police weaponry and use of chokeholds. The Council is also developing major changes to the city budget through new … Continue reading →

EDITOR’S NOTE: Seattle Bike Blog supports the demands led by the King County Equity Now Coalition, including dropping charges against protesters, defunding Seattle Police, and investing in Black-led community organizations and community safety. The Seattle Bike Brigade has been serving … Continue reading →

The second Peace Peloton ride starts 10 a.m. Saturday at Tougo Coffee on Yesler Way near Broadway. Organized by Doc Wilson, the first Peace Peloton drew more than 300 people for a ride from Alki to the CD. Wilson hopes … Continue reading →

Dress in black, grab your bike and join the Ride for Justice noon Thursday at 23rd Ave S and the I-90 Trail. The ride will end at Cal Anderson Park. Details from event organizers Estelita’s Library, a non-profit “justice focused … Continue reading →

EDITOR’S NOTE: Seattle Bike Blog supports the Defund Seattle Police effort initially led by a large group of community organizations and leaders, including No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Block the Bunker, Seattle Peoples Party, COVID-19 Mutual Aid, Trans Women … Continue reading →

The Peace Peloton will ride 20 miles around the city from Alki Beach to the Northwest African American Museum in the Central District Saturday to “bring awareness to and bring about positive change for black, brown, marginalized, and disenfranchised populations … Continue reading →

EDITOR’S NOTE: Seattle Bike Blog supports the Defund Seattle Police effort being led by a large group of community organizations and leaders, including No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Block the Bunker, Seattle Peoples Party, COVID-19 Mutual Aid, Trans Women … Continue reading →

Right now, Seattle’s Police Department and Mayor Jenny Durkan are trying to get out of a Federal consent decree in place since 2012 following a pattern of police violence. The current Seattle Police contract is not in compliance with the … Continue reading →

As we already saw in our previous post, the covid-19 pandemic has totally scrambled the typical ridership data collected by Seattle’s 24/7 bike counters. On the Fremont Bridge, for example, total ridership is down about 20% compared to the 2013-19 … Continue reading →

The lower Spokane Street Bridge to West Seattle, a vital lifeline for the neighborhood since the upper West Seattle Bridge closed, will itself close for evening-to-overnight work Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday. That means anyone biking will need to detour … Continue reading →

It’s a surprisingly simple idea. Find people who need bikes, find people who have bikes they don’t need, and then introduce them to each other. That’s basically how Bike Match Seattle works, a project started by Maggie Harger as a … Continue reading →

The number of bike trips across the Fremont Bridge in February was 47% higher than the February average from 2013-19, continuing a trend of strong year-over-year bike trip growth in recent years. But then March happened, and employers shut down … Continue reading →

The Ship Canal Water Quality project, the $500+ million effort by Seattle Public Utilities and the King County Wastewater Treatment Division to prevent sewage from spilling into Puget Sound during heavy rains, will close the section of the Burke-Gilman Trail … Continue reading →

Designs for the 15th Ave NE paving project are compete, and they include bike lanes from (almost) Lake City Way to NE 55th Street, most of which are protected bike lanes. There’s a lot to like about the project, which … Continue reading →

I already wrote about the MLK Jr Way S bike lane concepts, but SDOT gave a few more details about the project during the May Bicycle Advisory Board meeting (PDF) that are worth sharing. First, some background. SDOT is conducting … Continue reading →

Cascade Bicycle Club staffers have been organizing to help make deliveries for the U District Food Bank, helping to distribute food to community members. “There are individuals who are immunocompromised or just can’t get out to food bank,” said Cascade … Continue reading →

Redmond is constructing an underpass for the 520 Trail at NE 40th Street, so the trail route will be detoured through May 2021. The closure started this week. Users are directed to side streets near the Microsoft and Nintendo campuses … Continue reading →

Seattle has been making headlines nationally for announcing that the city would make its Stay Healthy Streets program permanent, so you may have missed that Bellevue has started its own people-first street program it’s calling simply “Healthy Streets.” The Eastside … Continue reading →

It made national news last week when Seattle announced that the Stay Healthy Streets (“SHS”) program would be transitioning from an emergency program to a permanent program. For example, a CNN headline read: “Seattle to permanently close 20 miles of … Continue reading →

Richard Smith has resigned after nearly three years as Executive Director of Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes. The news comes as the sister organizations are operating with half their usual staff and cancelled nearly all their major events this … Continue reading →

It’s time to buy a bike. Especially with the news today that JUMP’s red bike share bikes are no longer online, owning a reliable bicycle has never been more useful or important in Seattle. With transit likely to be an … Continue reading →

For the first time since July 2017, no bike share bikes are available in Seattle. As a consequence of the major investment deal yesterday between Uber and Lime, JUMP and its red bikes now belong to Lime. Though users could … Continue reading →

Seattle’s final operational bike share service just changed hands in yet another major shakeup in the private bike share saga. Uber led a $170 million investment in a majorly devalued Lime, and Lime will take on Uber’s JUMP bike and … Continue reading →

King County Parks will reopen regional trails and many parks tomorrow (Friday), the department’s first significant openings since closing all parks in late March. The county’s network of regional trails had been closed to recreation, though essential workers and people … Continue reading →

The city of course hopes it never comes to this, but they are planning for a worst case scenario in which the bridge becomes so unstable it could collapse. After studying the extensive cracking on the West Seattle High Bridge … Continue reading →

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has been collecting people’s ideas for street improvements the city could make to help more people get outside and get around safely during the outbreak. They received 250 ideas, which they condensed into a map of 130 … Continue reading →

Washington State is preparing to ease a few restrictions for the first time since the outbreak began, and reopening day use of many parks and trails are at the top of the list. Starting tomorrow (Tuesday), major statewide trails like … Continue reading →

For the inaugural episode of Ask Seattle Bike Blog, I respond to a bus driver who lives in West Seattle and wants to know a good bike route to the bus yard in Sodo. I thought this would be a … Continue reading →

There’s good news and bad news for people looking to get outside on some car-free (or car-light) streets in the next week. SDOT has announced 11 more miles of Stay Healthy Streets, bringing the citywide total to 20 miles of … Continue reading →